Saturday, May 7, 2016

Guru Manoj- a dancer’s defiance for quality

An aged man with thick grey beard, balding
pate and scrawny body appears in a dance pose photograph, and a big crowd of
Facebook buffs follow in flocks. The unusual picture is shared by thousands,
quite unbecoming for a photo which has little sensational value. There was
something ravishing. Cute as it is, this is a Bharathanatyam pose and the
generation which cheered by ‘likes’ and shares in Facebook had only vague clues.
This is classical dance? Yes, but no glitter and dazzle of jewelries, no shiny
pajamas, no make up, no eye shadow, nor pointedly focusing bindi. The sexagenarian has a scanty loin cloth, a red shawl
draping his shoulders and another piece tied around the waste. But there was something quite appealing even
to the untrained eyes of the Facebook crowd.

This picture-perfect stance is of dancer
Guru Manoj, displaying one of his favorite poses or karanams. Guru Manoj had not been a regular name amongst
South Indian dancers or teachers until recently when the Guru Pooja award was
bestowed upon him by KeralaSangeethNatakaAcademy. His popularity
was limited to his dear disciples who had clear and deep respect for his
choreography and teaching methods. As to his true nature, shunning away from
limelight was a solemn rebellion to fulfill a life consigned and devoted to
dance.

Defying the norms was not a choice in life for
Guru Manoj. It was a necessity, which provided a wholesome survival edge. Born
as Abdul Manaf to a lower middle class Muslim family in a small village,
building a life in Bharathanatyam needed constant struggle. Derided by his own
family and conservative saviors of Bharathanatyam culture, Manaf had to have a
makeover for fulfilling his passion. Manaf became Manoj and the identity shift was
more than a pursuit of happiness, an event beneficial to dance per se as
evidenced by later history. The prodigy was beyond control. Local training was
extended to a lengthy interlude in Madras with tutelage under K. K. Sarasa and later by none
other than Chitra Visweswaran. A stint with Vempatti Chinna Sathyam provided training
in Kuchipudi which expanded his choreographic potential and competency.

Once
back in Kerala he had to battle again with his own identity- the religion he
was born in. Moreover he was increasingly becoming an unpopular teacher just
for his unwillingness to compromise on quality. Training students just for youth festival competitions (a
survival skill much need for dance teachers
both for popularity and for monetary advantages) was not the major trail
he would step on. He would make dancers, not competitors and his style and
perfectionism manifested in his students did not conform to youth festival
conventions. The fertility rate of quality in Kerala soil was-it is even now-
meager and Manaf aka Manoj had to flee. His venture was to travel and settle in
Bhopal,
starting afresh with a new dance school, Navachethana. If Kerala
was not congenial, Bhopal
was supportive. Kerala lost this ecclesiastic harbinger and until now remained
generally unknown.

At Navachethana through various productions
he expanded all the knowledge and training he acquired from the great masters,
but with distinction. His effective training in Kanatic music, veena and
mridamgam all enabled him to win over
novel challenges. His approach to dance was mainly cosmic, the choreography
with underlying realms of the technical,
the philosophical and the perceived aesthetics. He experimented with the surrealistic
themes much before other dancers ventured into such meanderings. In productions like The Rhythm of Universe he
projected the transitions of the eternal, perpetually designed rhythm based on beats of four (thalam chathurasram) of the universe into its human altered
version of three beats and five beats. Such abstract expositions are rare in
Bharathanatyam or other Indian dances. His “Jalagaatha’ or Song of Water had bearings on issues facing Indian life
regarding the availability of this elixir of life. But he had a strong footing
on form rather than content. The explorative power steered him to novel
choreographies stoically grounded on structural designs and style, let it be rare
varnams of Papanasam Sivan or unknown
Krithis of Thanchavoor Quartet. His earlier research on karanams did not take off because of lack of resources and support
but he needs to be credited for one of the first to embark on this subject.
Currently his research extends to comparative studies on Bharathanatyam baanis
or schools of style.

The
inner deeper aspect of dance is the explorative passion for Guru Manoj. “I am
an ardent devotee of Thantric philosophy” he confides in a soft but firm voice.
Thantra has the basis on the
ever pervading concept of ‘Sivam’ and Siva evolved as the emperor of
dance. “The approach to life by Thantra
has similarities with Sufi philosophy” he affirms. Sufism has the elemental
methodology of unison with the divine by
repeated body movements. “And
Tantra had a lot to contribute to Indian dances. Take the example of mudras (hand gestures). The nonverbal
communications by mudras could have
the origin in Thantric techniques. It is a medium to communicate with the
divine, and thus dance merges with this pathway” he elaborates.

The Facebook junkies who swarmed Guru Manoj’s
photo posting would have had some inklings about this, although quite unknown
to them. That is why they found something beyond natural in his exquisite
poses. Of course Indian dance has the elemental core of a perspective where human
body is an assemblage of geometrical parts each part moving or positioning with
respect to others. Guru Manoj has integrated this into his life style. “Guru has dance rhythms in each and every
movement of him, let it be dance or not. Even when he picks up the phone he
manifests a rhythm” his disciples acknowledge.

Guru Manoj is defying the gender identity
conventions set for Indian dances. The popular methodology of dance
appreciation involves enjoying the young, beautiful feminine figure, the dance
element being extraneous. When Guru
Manoj, with a frame of an aging man, strikes a pose his physical body
disappears and a mystique dance design pervades in. There is nothing
effeminate. Not even masculine. Just pure dance, the geometry and the philosophy
made transparent.